


Worst Type of Madness

by anxiouslyfred



Series: Platonic Dukexiety Week 2020 [6]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Bullying, Gen, Highschool AU, fighting mention, protective Remus, teachers are useless sometimes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:48:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26587633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anxiouslyfred/pseuds/anxiouslyfred
Summary: Remus learnt to stand up to the bullies and is effectively his schools anti bullying policy. After their summer break he find out there’s been a new kid getting bullied and finally has the time to try and find where it’s happening and stop it.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders
Series: Platonic Dukexiety Week 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1926760
Comments: 1
Kudos: 59





	Worst Type of Madness

Teachers don’t like it when Remus points out films and TV shows are wrong to suggest the bad boys are bullies. The outcasts were the ones to get bullied and bad boys always came that way from being bullied and learning how to stand up against them with violence when teachers ignored the problem.

Then again Remus have lived the process and knew how useless it was to make teachers hear anything they didn’t want to. He was loud in class so of course he had to have been the bully, not the kids attacking as a team, or showing up with things that had blatantly been his the day before.

He had made sure that after the bullies decided he was too much trouble to keep going after he’d bring the trouble after them, protecting any kid he learnt was being bullied for whatever reason.

Some of those kids didn’t want to stick around him and that was fine. Remus didn’t really care beyond making sure they were safe and generally Roman would work on befriending them then. Others would follow him around occasionally, close enough to be called friends, but really just finding comfort in the maniacal safety he presented.

The point was that there hadn’t been any bullying he’d failed to stop before it escalated for half a school year, but with the return from the summer holidays there was talk of bullying problems again. All the friends in his protection had muttered something about making a new kid meet Remus but hadn’t managed it yet.

Remus wanted to meet whomever it was, but he’d made a deal with the art teacher that he’d take a role as a student assistant so he could have more time spent working on his own projects in the art classrooms. That had been taking up a lot of the time he’d usually fill with anything his mind came up with.

On Fridays he could still wander the school, searching out the messiest areas to “bask in the filthy gloriousness”, always leaving it tidier with hand dug flower beds by the time breaktime finished. Instead today he’d decided to seek out the beaten and the damned.

If the bullies weren’t already damned then he’d definitely be correcting that one at least.

The easiest way to find where anything could be happening was listening for a teachers yell to move along. The first time it was just for some kids messing about with the latest tradable toy to become a trend. Remus paused to increase his collections of the ones everyone hated for being too common.

Another yell had him wandering towards the vegetable garden, only to snicker at the sight of Janus trying once again to introduce native climbing vines to the trellis. They’d have a plant or two free for anybody who let them talk about the importance of native plants long enough but Remus had already been banned from bringing more plants home, no matter how well he looked about them.

With the third yell Remus found them, all cheery smiles and over friendly gestures as the group walked away from where a teacher was stood. Apparently the teacher couldn’t recognise the shaking, terrified boy in their midst.

“Oh, Troy, I keep being told I need to get introduced to the new kid, looks like you get the pleasure of introducing me.” Remus bounded over to them, going straight for the guy who had tried beating him up for the longest even after he first lost the fight.

“Remus. I’m fairly sure Virgil knows who his friends are, but sure, New kid, this is Remus the school pest.” Troy was frowning at him, clearly wanting to tell him to get out of there but held back by pretence with the teacher still nearby.

He hadn’t glanced back to look at Virgil as he made the introduction, although Remus was still watching him. Watching as one of the group muttered something with a snide grin, throwing an arm over Virgil’s shoulders, and as the boy hunched in, flinching away from the touch.

When faced with people that had failed to beat him up plenty of times Remus felt like he was parting the red sea as he moved forwards, closer to the new kid. “You know, if someone were to touch me in a way I didn’t like I’d hiss at them. Snakes, cats, raccoons and badgers all agree if someone ignores a hiss the appropriate response is to bite.”

The immediate hiss directed at him just made him beam. “Pretty sure spiders suggest the same, although I’ve yet to find a version of Spiderman that hisses.” He added, recognising the character hidden under the boys hoodie now he was a bit closer.

“I’m not as fast talking though.” The first words he’d heard Virgil say yet were barely more than a mutter, punctuated with cautious glances around at the group near them.

“Bet you know some awesome songs though. You could quote them until you’re ready to fight back using your own words if you don’t just want to hiss all the time.” Remus suggested, finally glancing back at the sour expressions being thrown his way. “Kinda curious though. What was Troy’s little gang of popularity chasers asking you to do?”

“English homework. I get poetry according to the teach.” Virgil shrugged, clearly not believing the words.

Before Remus could respond at all a disgusted sigh interrupted them, “Guys lets just bounce. We’re not going to get anywhere now the trach has gotten involved.” Troy announced, turning to march away.

“Bet he’s left you in the trash more times than the reverse though.” Virgil snapped, pushing to be in front of Remus where they’d been standing, meeting the glare thrown back at him directly.

Remus just started snickering, “And here you seemed to be two steps from panicking when I came over. I thought I’d need breathing exercises when they left, not my camera for someone joining me in fighting back.”

“Panicking is part of fight or flight. It’s pretty easy for me to swap into fight when I can see the way out of an area. Are you the guy all those timid kids keep saying to find?” Virgil groused, rolling his eyes and hunching back down now it was just the pair of them chatting.

“That’s me, Remus. Was Troy telling the truth when he called you Virgil or am I changing your name in my head now?” He’d wanted to ask that from the start. There were a few other outcasts who the school knew by one name but as soon as Remus asked a second time said something completely different.

Virgil just shook his head. “Virgil or Virge if you like I guess. You able to teach me any self defence beyond the hissing and biting thing or should I just read up on spiders?”

“Oh I like you Virge. First time someone has actually asked to learn self defence rather than rely on my protection. So long as I don’t manage to creep you out by weeks end, this is the start of a messy complicated friendship!” Remus was cackling at the request, excited to have the chance to share his fighting skills.

Virgil narrowed his eyes, “Pretty sure you’re meant to say beautiful friendship though that would definitely be a lie.”

“And I leave lying to Janus when someone asks how a climbing plant started growing in their garden. Friendship is messy, complicated and the worst type of madness. Want to see if we make good friends?” Remus repeated the offer, fairly sure if he just insisted that was for Roman to claim not him he’d get a blank look.

Virgil snorted at the description at least. “I guess you can sign me up for the worst type of madness then.”


End file.
